Steve Garvie

Description

Okay not a brilliant image as it was taken in deep shade on the forest floor but this is an incredible and bizarre animal whose plight deserves to be more widely known. This is the Golden-rumped Sengi, a highly endangered mammal confined to a single forest in coastal Kenya. This strange beast is related to elephants, manatees and hyrax belonging to a group of African-derived mammals called the Afrotheres. I had never heard of Sengis until I took a birdwatching trip into the weird and wonderful Arabuko-Sokoke forest in coastal Kenya ( www.pbase.com/rainbirder/the_sengi ). See some BBC video footage of this mammal in ARKive here: www.arkive.org/golden-rumped-elephant-shrew/rhynchocyon-c...